Formerly also cokke. [Here are included a number of separate uses, which appear all to be derived, in one way or another, from the name of the fowl. Even this derivation, however, is somewhat doubtful for the earliest sense, which has been conjecturally compared with Irish cog-aim ‘I war, I make war,’ stem in OIr. coc-.]
I. † 1. intr. To contend, fight, wrangle, quarrel. Also in 16th c. to cock it. Obs.
c. 1230. [see COCKING vbl. sb.].
a. 1275. Prov. Ælfred, 668, in O. E. Misc., 138. Þe luttele mon … wole grennen, cocken, and chiden.
c. 1300. Pol. Songs (1839), 133. To cocke with knyf nast thou none nede.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 2042. Fra morne to þe mirke niȝt maynly þa cocken.
a. 1577. Sir T. Smith, Orat., iii. App. to Life (L.). And if they be both disposed to cock it throughly, yet when they both be made bankrupts, then they must needs conclude a peace.
1600. Abp. Abbot, Exp. Jonah, 612. He who should have been mild to men, is now cocking with God.
II. † 2. To play the ‘cock,’ behave boastfully or defiantly; to swagger, strut; to brag, crow over.
1575. Abp. Parker, Corr., 246. Our circumspections so variable … maketh cowards thus to cock over us.
1556. J. Heywood, Spider & F., xliii. 17. The spider and fly, that erst there bragde and cockt.
1649. Arnway, Tablet (1661), 161 (L.). He [Belshazzar] was found cocking up against God.
1682. Southerne, Loyal Brother, V. i. 47. I’l strut, and cock, and talk as big, as wind, and froth can make me.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 422, ¶ 2. A young Officer, who gave Symptoms of cocking upon the Company.
1713. Guardian (1756), II. No. 108. 103. Every one cocks and struts upon it, and pretends to overlook us.
III. To stick or turn up.
3. trans. To set up assertively or obtrusively; to turn up in an assertive, pretentious, jaunty, saucy, or defiant way; to stick stiffly up or out. [app. with reference to the posture of a cock’s neck in crowing, or that of his crest or his tail.]
To cock the ears: to prick up the ears in attention, interest, etc., said of horses, dogs, and humorously of persons. To cock the nose: to turn it up in contempt or indifference. To cock the eye: to turn the eye with a knowing look; to give a wink.
1600. Day, Begg. Bednell Gr., II. ii. in Bullen, O. Pl. (1881), 39. Your bought Gentility that sits on thee Like Pencock’s feathers cock’t upon a Raven.
1672. Marvell, Reh. Transp., I. 161. [She] spreads and cocks her tail.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 275, ¶ 8. The Latin Poets, when they talk of a Man’s cocking his Nose, or playing the Rhinoceros.
1720. Gay, Pastorals, iv. 131, Poems (1745), I. 104 (J.). Our Lightfoot barks, and cocks his ears.
1751. Smollett, Per. Pic. (1779), I. ii. 15. To use the vulgar phrase, he cocked his eye at him.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulgar Tongue, Cock your eye, shut one eye.
1790. Burns, Elegy Henderson, iii. Ye hills … That proudly cock your cresting cairns!
1804. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Ep. Ld. Mayor, Wks. 1812, V. 204. He cocks his nose upon disgrace.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxvii. The wisest Captain that ever cocked the sweet gale (bog-myrtle) in his bonnet.
1836. Marryat, Japhet, iv. Timothy put on his hat, cocked his eye at me, and left us alone.
1863. Kingsley, Water-bab., iii. He cocked up his head, and he cocked up his wings, and he cocked up his tail.
1879. Punch, 10 May, 213. Cocked my laughing eye, and shot a glance at her out of it.
b. intr. To stand, or stick conspicuously up.
1629. Gaule, Holy Madnesse, 91. His Beuer cocks.
1650. R. Stapylton, Strada’s Low-C. Warres, VII. 74. The Spanish Souldiers … would … put their Helmets upon faggot-sticks, so as they might be seen but to cock above the Workes.
1697. Lond. Gaz., No. 3319/4. She carries her Tail cocking.
1787. Best, Angling (ed. 2), 168. Floats … must be so poised … as to make them cock, that is, stand perpendicular in the water.
1857. Livingstone, Trav., xxviii. 569. The little saucy-looking heads [of hippopotami] cocking up between the old one’s ears.
4. To cock the hat: ‘to set up the hat with an air of petulance and pertness’ (J.); ‘a common mode of vulgar salutation’ (Halliwell). Now, to stick the hat jauntily on one side of the head.
1651. Baxter, Inf. Bapt., 148. He went up and down London Streets with his Hat cockt, his teeth gnashing, his eyes fixed.
1697. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), II. 204. Behaving themselves indecently as her majestie past by, looking her in the face and cocking their hats.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 403, ¶ 5. I saw an alerte young fellow that cocked his hat upon a friend of his who entered.
1729. Swift, Grand Question debated, 105. The Captain, to show he is proud of the favour, Looks up to your window, and cocks up his beaver; (His beaver is cock’d; pray, Madam, mark that, For a captain of horse never takes off his hat).
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, lix. Said Dennis, cocking his hat for the convenience of scratching his head.
1842. S. Lover, Handy Andy, xxi. 179–80. The mother thought Murtough Murphy would be a good speculation for the daughter to ‘cock her cap at.’
1852. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour, v. 19. A fancy forage cap, cocked jauntily over a profusion of well-waxed curls.
5. To turn up the brim of (a hat), esp. as a fashion of wearing it; cf. COCKED HAT.
1663. Pepys, Diary, 13 July. Mrs. Stewart in this dresse, with her hat cocked and a red plume.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl., iv. xix. (1675), 279. He took up with his Hat, which by Cocking the Brims he turn’d into a kind of Cup, such a proportion of Water that he quench’d his Thirst with it.
1766. Goldsm., Vic. W., xii. Cocking his hat with pins.
1824. D’Israeli, Cur. Lit., Lit. Fashions. The same caprice that cuts our coats and cocks our hats.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., I. 81. Wolsey’s hat … apparently was never cocked, as the fashion now is.
b. intr. and absol.
1672. Wycherley, Love in Wood, II. iv. Say, your Hat did not cock handsomely.
1699. Garth, Dispens., I. (1730), 147. So spruce he moves, so gracefully he cocks; The hollow’d Rose declares him Orthodox.
IV. 6. intr. ‘To train or use fighting cocks’ (1.).
1546–1886. [see COCKING vbl. sb. 2].
7. To shoot wood-cocks.
1696–1870. [see COCKING vbl. sb. 3].
